Tag Archives: Fraud

There has been no shortage of reports of state attorneys general seeking accountability from servicers that they allege mishandled foreclosures.
Now it's being reported that attorneys general in all 50 states are near to reaching settlements with the nation's top five mortgage servicers, including Bank of America and GMAC Mortgage. The states are looking to develop separate agreements, rather than one encompassing settlement; and they plan to pursue a civil investigation rather than a criminal one.

The Obama Administration announced on Thursday a round of grants totaling nearly $73 million to more than 500 national, regional, and local organizations to provide housing counseling services. Agencies receiving the grants will focus on helping homebuyers and homeowners understand their financing and down payment options, and will help combat predatory lending by assisting borrowers with reviews of loan documentation. The new round of grants represent a 22 percent increase over last year's funding.

In a move reminiscent of the last time the United States was in such dire financial straits, the FDIC announced recently that it has begun an investigation of executives and other employees of failed banks. In the 1980s and 1990s, the savings and loan (S&L) crisis prompted the government to investigate and prosecute hundreds of bank insiders, sending more than 1,000 to prison, and collecting $4.5 billion. This time around, the FDIC has opened more than 200 civil cases and is seeking to recover around $2 billion.

Trends are emerging that indicate ""fraud for property,"" i.e. fraud to attain homeownership, is returning to the industry. The analysts at Interthinx reached this conclusion after witnessing steep increases in two of the four types of mortgage fraud the company tracks. According to the firm's quarterly report released Monday, its risk indices for employment/income fraud and identity fraud in mortgage applications have both jumped more than 20 percent over the last year.

CoreLogic has announced the launch of its new Short Sale Monitoring Solution. The company says it's the industry's first short sale fraud prevention and pricing technology. The solution alerts lenders to ""risky"" pending and closed short sales. It matches details against other pending loan applications in CoreLogic's database and public records for the same property, and continues to watch properties for a period specified by the lender after short sales have closed.

This past week Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller filed lawsuits against three for-profit foreclosure companies, claiming they have not complied with the state's statutes by demanding money up-front for services not yet performed. Zoeller has formed a Homeowner Protection Unit (HPU) meant to track down foreclosure consultant companies that may be operating illegally in Indiana or are failing to comply with Indiana's new laws meant to protect consumers.

As part of an ongoing effort against scams that target financially distressed consumers, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has banned several marketers from selling mortgage modification or foreclosure relief services. According to the FTC, the marketers allegedly charged homeowners up-front fees and falsely claimed they could get their mortgage modified or prevent foreclosure on their homes. Settlements regarding these allegations have been met through three separate actions.

Strategic Disposition Group, LLC, recently launched OfferAssurance.com, a new online platform aimed at addressing the industry-wide concern of fraud in short sale and REO transactions and the need to improve capital recovery for institutional sellers of residential real estate by providing transparency. According to the company, OfferAssurance.com addresses potential fraud and abuse of fiduciary responsibility by having buyer agents, rather than listing agents, submit offers online, thus providing true transparency to the offer submission process.

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